I heaved the fully loaded Exped Lightning 50 off my back onto the ground, right in the middle of a gem of a creekside Colorado campsite. It was packed to the absolute limit with gear and food that was quickly extruded into a neat pile beside us. Within moments, I had alpine charcuterie served, camp chairs pitched, water heating, and a diaper changing station deployed. With a new baby in tow, the demands on my day hiking pack have grown exponentially. 20 liters? Forget about it. I nabbed a sample of the freshly updated Exped Lightning 50 to pull double…
Stories about the stupidity of zero-tolerance policies in schools are hardly uncommon, but you’d think they’d at least slow down during summer break. The parents of a Georgia first-grader, though, are speaking out their son was suspended from school after biting his sandwich into the shape of a gun (or the letter L) and allegedly pointing it at a classmate. In fact, that’s just one of the punishments delivered to the child by school administrators, who the parents say should be more accommodating because of their son’s autism. School records show Sara Harp Minter Elementary administrators issued…
American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) is one of the premier names in off-road tuning. Beyond selling individual aftermarket parts, the company also offers complete kits for folks looking to create their own adventure rig. Its latest creation is the AEV FX370, which is based on the Ford Super Duty, and is for anyone who needs to carry heavy payloads well off the beaten path. The complete kit starts at $19,999. A $20,000 Upgrade With Some Serious Off-Road Potential Credit: AEV The AEV FX370 is a complete upgrade package for the Ford Super Duty. The company believes that owners of these trucks often…
A fuel tanker in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen was hijacked by Somali pirates. The Tanzanian-flagged fuel and chemical tanker MT Asana has a crew of 20 on board and was seized on Friday. Iran Accuses The US Of Acting Like “Pirates” After departing the Yemeni port of Mukalla, seven armed pirates reportedly boarded the MT Asana and forced it into Somali territorial waters near Puntland, according to the Associated Press, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the incident. While Tanzanian authorities have not confirmed any details yet, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has stated…
Imagine you’re a first responder. Your patient has just broken their leg and is wet, underdressed, and nearly hypothermic. If you don’t have any clothes to change them into, you may have to offer your own, or some purchased for the occasion. And if the injury is serious enough, those nice base layers might get cut right off, never to be used again. That was the scenario that merino wool brand Minus 33 tackled head-on when it launched a program in 2017 to donate its factory seconds to a local search-and-rescue organization. The Search & Rescue (SAR) kit program repurposes…
Bans on so-called assault weapons are popular in anti-gun states, to say the least, but those days might be numbered. The Supreme Court has agreed to finally hear a couple of assault weapon ban cases, and I think everyone knows more or less how those will go. There’s almost no chance that the same Court that gave us Bruen will uphold bans on modern sporting rifles. But before the Supreme Court decided to hear it, numerous anti-gun states had passed such laws. Virginia, this year, became the latest.And, at the Washington Post, Stephen Gutowski has…
National reciprocity, at a minimum, needs to happen. People with a driver’s license from Florida can drive in all 50 states and every US territory without a problem, even though driving is considered a privilege, not a right. Meanwhile, California can ignore a permit from Georgia without repercussions. It’s stupid. It’s always been stupid.And honestly, the arguments made against national reciprocity have always been remarkably stupid.And John Lott has already debunked many of them.As Lott explained, last year, when House Judiciary Committee passed national reciprocity along party lines, Democrats also opposed legislation that would have allowed…
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Police in Gastonia, North Carolina, say a man was shot last week while allegedly trying to kick his way into a disabled 75-year-old homeowner’s house. Instead of admitting what happened, investigators say he and his girlfriend drove to a nearby gas station and claimed he’d been wounded in a random drive-by shooting. According to reports from WCNC and WBTV, that story unraveled quickly. The homeowner, Donald Bolynn, told reporters he’d already been targeted once before. So when he heard someone trying to force their way into his Ware Avenue home again, he wasn’t…
Whether you’re being deployed or will be at home for some time, maintaining your car is important. One of the most important aspects of car maintenance goes beyond changing its oil or rotating the tires; It also includes recognizing signs of trouble early. This means paying attention to unusual noises, dashboard warning lights, and the way your car drives. If you ignore these issues, they won’t go away and will likely get worse, especially if your car often sits in a garage or on base while you’re gone. Small leaks can turn into big ones over time and worn parts…
A former college All-American football player who played pro is headed to prison. On May 7, a federal judge sentenced Joel Rufus French, a former tight end at Ole Miss who later signed and played with two NFL teams, to more than 16 years in prison. Authorities said that French orchestrated a health care fraud scheme that stole nearly $197 million from Medicare and a Department of Veterans Affairs program that covers the families of disabled and deceased veterans. French, 47, must also pay back more than $110 million and give up roughly $17 million the government already seized from…
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Space has long been treated as a supporting element of military power—essential, but secondary to operations on land, at sea, and in the air. That reality has changed. In a recent interview with Military.com, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Brook Leonard, a former senior U.S. space commander who helped stand up U.S. Space Command and later oversaw global space operations supporting U.S. and allied forces, said the domain has crossed a threshold, one that fundamentally reshapes how nations project power and compete. Leonard, now CEO of Rogue Space Systems, said the shift is already underway. “Space, for me, is moving…
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Making high-stakes decisions and dealing with the rules of engagement hits differently for U.S. service members who were exposed to human suffering and sanctioned lethal force. For some, experiences that deeply conflicted with moral beliefs left them with what we now call moral injury. The concept of moral injury came to light through the work of psychiatrist Jonathan Shay with Vietnam Veterans back in the 1990s. Today, an estimated 955,000 military veterans experience moral injury and more than 1 million have a service-connected disability for PTSD. While the two may have similarities, they are different. According to the Journal of…
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Modern navigation systems assume satellites will always be available. TERN, an Austin-based technology company, believes that assumption is becoming increasingly dangerous. In an interview, TERN co-founders Brett Harrison and Shaun Moore described how the company developed its Independently Derived Positioning System (IDPS™), a navigation platform designed to continue functioning even when GPS, cellular service, and connectivity fail. The technology recently expanded into off-road navigation, allowing vehicles to maintain turn-by-turn guidance in remote terrain and GPS-denied environments. The expansion, which TERN formally announced on May 12, 2026, brings continuous positioning and waypoint-based routing to trails, unpaved roads, and other off-road environments…
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From steep crag trails to slabby scrambles, the best approach shoes blend hiking comfort with sticky rubber. We also look for climbing precision and enough durability for repeated abuse on rock. For this update, GearJunkie editor Chris Kassar and lead tester Ryan Kempfer tested five new approach shoes over a three-month cycle. From the Tetons to Moab, we logged rocky approaches, desert scrambles, crag days, and mixed trail miles to see how each shoe handled grip, fit, stiffness, support, and durability. After further testing, we awarded our top spot to the La Sportiva TX4 EVO for its unmatched mix of…
